LOS ALAMITOS — Usually, when CIF Southern Section commissioner Rob Wigod sits down to discuss the state of high school sports, the first subject involves transfers.

(Or else the Ball family, and he’s likely thankful he doesn’t have to worry about that commotion any more.)

This time, though, we talked participation numbers, particularly those for football. The state CIF and subsequently the national federation of high school associations both released figures that essentially said the same thing. Overall participation is up but football is down, precipitously. In California alone, there’s a 2.8 percent drop from a year ago, decreases each of the past three years and six of the past eight, and an overall 12 percent drop in participation numbers over the past 11 years.

“There’s concern about the declining numbers because we believe that all students should be involved in something,” Wigod said. “We want kids to participate.

“I keep seeing what you see. What I guess I wonder about a little bit is, you know, to me football probably became safer in the last 20 to 25 years than it may have been certainly 25 years ago, and maybe safer than it has been.”

He ticked off rule changes in response to safety concerns, concussion protocols, heat and hydration awareness, and limits on contact and on practice time as efforts to make the game safer.

“I’m not sure you could put your finger on one thing and say, ‘This is why we see lower numbers,’ ” he said. “We hope that doesn’t continue, because I played high school football and it changed my life. And it’s just a great game that really helps a school and helps the student-athletes involved, the whole community. It’s a big part of high school, and you hate to see it start to decline. We hope we can see that that turns around.”

Football has changed in the past 25 years, but all high school sports have. That elusive college scholarship has become the coin of the realm, and outside entities such as club and travel teams have grown exponentially in all sports. High school teams themselves spend more time on out-of-season activities, be it seven-on-seven football tournaments or basketball summer leagues.

And considering that school schedules have changed, and in some cases in-season competition schedules as well, what was a three-month vacation for athletes in less complicated times is now a three-week dead period.

“There is a dream being sold, and the dream is to get to the next level, and many people believe that the only way you get to the next level is to devote your entire energy to the same sport all year round, invest in private instruction and club teams, travel teams, every possible way that you can hopefully get improvement in your ability,” Wigod said. “But I always say the same thing: The number of opportunities of the next level hasn’t really changed. It’s the same number of Division I scholarships in football, at 85, that it was probably back in 1985. Yet the people that believe they have the chance to get one of those 85 has grown exponentially, right? So I think that’s across the sports spectrum.”

Oh, and about that scheduling … by next week’s Labor Day holiday, most Southern Section schools will have played three games. Putting Week 0 in mid-August, Wigod said, was a reaction to the state CIF decision to move the football state championship games earlier. The final weekend last year was Dec. 15-16. This year it will be Dec. 7-8 (at Cerritos College), and then Dec. 13-14 in 2019 and Dec. 11-12 in 2020.

Consider that as recently as 2015 the final weekend was Dec. 18-19, uncomfortably close to Christmas for a lot of those involved. The flip side is that this schedule, which had players assembling for preseason workouts July 30, involves many more players.

“I don’t think our schools and coaches were thrilled about having it start this early,” Wigod said. “But I offer this to you: This didn’t have to start this early.

“Just as an example, let’s say we didn’t have a Zero Week anymore. Let’s say we just said we’re going to go (weeks) one through 10. Then it wouldn’t have mattered; it would have been the same start date. But our coaches, they don’t want to do that. And I respect them for that. They would prefer we have the option for Zero Week. It helps them schedule; a lot of them as you know play Zero Week, play the five games and get that bye week before league starts.”

Oh, yes, transfers. You thought we forgot?

It’s considered an issue because high-end players in high-profile sports are most likely the ones on the move. But Wigod said that of 400,000 athletes in the 570-school Southern Section last year, 8,000 were transfers.

“That means 392,000 students didn’t move schools,” he said. “But that’s OK. I get it. There’s still a lot of attention paid to some of the high-profile (athletes). What people forget to realize: Most of those transfers are making valid residence changes under that rule, which has probably been here for a hundred years.”

The administrators are not ignoring the issue, he said. The Southern Section sent a survey to its member schools, with the results due back Sept. 7, to find out if they desire change, and if so how it should play out.

The options: A first-time freshman transfer rule, with no limit on a school change on the first day of 10th grade; sitting out a full year of varsity competition without a move or a hardship condition; or changing the current sit-out period from the first half of the season to the second half. (Which might significantly slow down movement.)

But, he added: “When you read about or see high-profile students, people think the transfer rules are too loose and these students can move anywhere they want to with no issues. (But) these students aren’t sitting out … they’re making valid residence changes, and the valid residence rule (has) been there for probably a hundred years. It hasn’t changed.”

Neither will the conversation and speculation. That’s just part of high school sports in the 21st century.

Jim Alexander is an Inland Empire native who started with his hometown newspaper, The Press-Enterprise, longer ago than he cares to admit. He's been a sports columnist off and on since 1992, and a full-time columnist since 2010. Yes, he's opinionated, but no, that's not the only club in his bag. He's covered every major league and major sports beat in Southern California over the years, so not much surprises him any more. (And he and Justin Turner have this in common: Both attended Cal State Fullerton. Jim has no plans to replicate Turner's beard.)